38.4 Army to Navy

General Summary

Day 568

In the morning we have a very light (still hardly caffeinated tea) before Shene gives us a brief tour of the city. Here, he tells us, elves haven't had to carve out a place for themselves like in Deldrin. The races here are integrated. In particular many of the formerly Drettir dwarves here get along very well with elves and defend us from the local slaver types.   At one point he leads us by an elvish woman selling scarves who comes out and greets me directly. Apparently my army once stood between her village and the Collective. Within her shop there is beautiful dappled shade that trickles through the delicate scarves hung throughout the rafters. Liliales is quite taken with the effect and sets about arranging to have Dreamfall draped just like this. As we explain our home, I remark quite casually that elves were once fae and so it is not really so strange that I've acquired wings as well. I know this is not necessarily a kind way to relay such shocking information but...I'm tired. It is the sort of fact that will one day be common knowledge and I might as well start acting like it.   Our tour takes us to a marketplace full of heavily spiced food cooked in enormous metal pans. The food is plentiful and no one seems to be exchanging money or even trading for it - the vendors are happily loading up plates for anyone who reaches out.  

An important part of the Free People - no one who is hungry can be free.

  Shene tells us that many of the business and merchants offer free food like this with no strings attached, though inevitably anyone who has taken part in this goodwill will surely give those merchants their business later on. And even if they don't, it adds to the business' reputation. Most importantly, the food is good. I can't imagine anyone in this city would view this as a place of shame or poverty. That piece is important to me as well, there is no sense building something that people are ashamed to take part in.   As we descend into the harbour afterwards, Kaide and Trillium laugh over wishing they had wings like all of their fae family. Immediately I'm captured by the thought of cloaks of day and night like the seasonal cloak Magdalena gave me. I wonder if Nal might have ideas on how to make such a thing...but surely our little group of mages could figure it out. Kaide is all a flutter with ideas about wind magic but I'm positive we could figure something out using only motion.   Eventually we are shown through a pair of elvish guards who kneel before me, and enter into the elvish Navy's war room (though Magdalena and Qing Chen dismiss themselves to study). The walls are covered in maps with nautical markings that Kaide nods at appreciatively. She's surprised to see such effective sea charts from elves, considering that we hardly have an ocean to navigate across the Barrier.   The two elves we meet are remarkably young - Raethien the Commander is hardly in his mid 200's and Thistle, the Vice-Commander, is even younger. Raethien tells us that he was captured in Haven and sold as a deckhand, spending 15 years aboard ships until he outlived his captors and then moved on to rescuing other elves. He's sailed across the sea and back multiple times, even trying to sail around the Barrier itself to no avail.   Early on he tells us that he would rescue people only to insist that they join his cause but now things have eased up enough that he can release those that he frees. Throughout this I note Thistle watching him very sympathetically and as we continue to discuss what they've been through, she eventually speaks up. It seems that she has long been carrying a torch for him and has chosen this strategic moment to convince him that he is allowed to fall in love with his Vice-Commander (with my help...as have fallen in love both with my teacher and my Hand). I have to hand it to her, it is a very, very clever move because I am all too willing to push around this young Commander into accepting his right to be happy and loved. As Thistle describes it, she has been working on this for forty years! It also comes out that Thistle herself knows so much about me because she is quite the collector of stories and songs about my love stories. I find this uncomfortable enough that I leave her and Kaide to discuss maps (they are her doing) and follow Raethien out to review their fleet.   Many of the ships in harbour are captured human prizes but others are clearly elvish and flying black sails. They are sleek, graceful, and imbued with magic of wind and wave to help them cut through the water. They would so clearly be faster and more effective than the human ships which rely only on the wind and teams of slaves rowing in the hold when they are becalmed. They are all made from quite an unusual wood, apparently harvested by beaver-like spirit folk far to the South.   That night the navy throws a party for us and the mood is light and boisterous with much singing and dancing. There are enough young elves here who have sworn no oaths that I spend quite a bit of my time standing as Imperator and welcoming their oaths to the Empire. And me, I realize. I no longer stand as an extension of the Empress accepting their oaths. I'm doing it myself.